Is Blue Monday a real thing?
January 17, 2025
No Comments
Hypnotherapy is a great way to quit smoking and can easily be achieved by most individuals in a single session.
The therapist will generally really want to understand YOUR smoking habit. What it means to you, when you do it, when you don’t do it, and what you’ve tried in the past to quit amongst other things. The fact that a large part of a quit smoking session is understanding the habit, and talking through your ‘triggers’ etc. is so important into understanding how your life will be when smoking is just something that you USED to do. Many of us have built up certain misconceptions about how hard it may be, how addictive nicotine is, how it relives stress etc. The reality is often very different, giving up can be easy, a great deal of our smoking habit is just that ‘a habit’ rather than just addiction.
Many cigarettes we often don’t even want and throw half of it away.
I also help you to challenge misconceptions about the bad side of giving up. Those things you have have heard about quitting smoking, such as anger, weight gain, boredom, relaxation time. For each individual these are all different, and many are just simply not factual or true. You move away from replacing smoking with something else (e.g., sweets, food, patches, vaping etc.). Instead you are just cutting the habit off completely.
The talking part of the therapy is just as important as the hypnosis itself. It gets your mind ready to quit before you even get on the couch. One recent client said after the talking was done, she didn’t even need to get on the couch, as in her mind she had already quit. I did still use hypnosis, but it just goes to show the power that a good solution focused conversation can have on individuals.
Understanding how the mind the works, and why we smoke is also a great way to regaining control of smoking. Recognising that when we are operating well from the prefrontal cortex, anything that we decide to do is achievable. We then begin to move away from that more pattern led, templated part of the mind (primitive mind/limbic system). This part just follows the same habits and behaviours day in and day out because ‘that’s just what it does’ – it’s easier!
A study by McNeilly et al, found that hypnosis may help quitters to focus on their own resources to help them to curb their cravings. Other studies have suggested that it is more due the state of focused attention attained during hypnosis. The relaxation effect that many gain from hypnosis helps be cope better with nicotine addiction and withdrawal.
Elkins and Rajab found that after quit smoking hypnotherapy, 81% of those patients reported that they had stopped smoking.
Hasan, Faysal M (2014, February) found that Hypnotherapy is more effective than nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation -Hypnotherapy patients were more likely than NRT patients to be non-smokers at 12 weeks (43.9% vs. 28.2%; p = 0.14) and 26 weeks after hospitalization (36.6% vs. 18.0%; p = 0.06).
The only caveat I would add is that you do actually have to want to quit, if you are undecided then you may need to wait until you are sure. I’m not talking 100% here, usually I will seek 7 out of 10 of more on a wanting to quit scale before booking appointments. Make sure that you speak with your therapist before booking in, so that they can check if hypnotherapy is the best way forward for you at this time. No therapist can give you a 100% guarantee that you will quit, but they will give you all the tools you need to succeed, and hopefully can demonstrate to you high success rates and testimonials to back them up.
Different therapists will use quit smoking hypnosis in different ways to achieve the end results, and lots of imagery and metaphor as well as positive direct and indirect suggestion is likely to be included, giving you the confidence and belief in yourself to be abler to say with conviction when you leave the session ‘I DON’T SMOKE’.
Clients leave the session feeling motivated, in control and with a feeling of freedom and positivity about their smoke free future, often with a MP3 to listen to for additional support.
This article was published in the Hypnotherapy directory July 2021
